Developing a New Prostate Cancer Drug
By focusing on a key hormone receptor associated with
prostate cancer, UCLA professor Michael E. Jung and coworkers, in collaboration with oncologist Charles L.
Sawyers and his group at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City, have
rationally designed a small molecule that provides the
basis for a new prostate cancer treatment with a novel
mechanism.
Jung discussed the project at the American Chemical
Society’s national meeting in Philadelphia last summer,
explaining that there are three types of prostate cancer.
Nonmetastatic prostate cancer is typically not very
Mike Jung and Dong Won Yoo
aggressive and often remains untreated. The second type
— hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer — is an aggressive cancer that responds to
treatments that reduce male hormone levels, such as surgical castration and prescription of
antiandrogens. Surgical castration and antiandrogens “make the tumor growth go down, at least
for a time,” said Jung. “But after one to three years, about 60 percent of patients develop a third
type of prostate cancer, which is also metastatic but can no longer be treated with antiandrogens.”
This type is called hormone-refractory, castration-refractory or castration-resistant prostate
cancer.

“MDV3100 reduced tumors to a third or fourth of their original sizes.”
Jung and co-workers decided to pursue a medication against this third type of prostate cancer
by targeting the androgen receptor, which Sawyers’ group had previously identied as a promising
drug target. Their goal was to nd small organic molecules that bind to the androgen receptor
and that exhibit potent receptor blocking ability (antagonism), as well as little or no tendency to
activate the receptor (agonism).
Synthetic and design efforts led to a lead compound, RD162, which had notable drug
properties and retained potent androgen receptor antagonism in hormone-refractory cells. A trial
in live mice with hormone-refractory prostate cancer showed that RD162 “knocked down the
tumors,” Jung said. “We were hitting hormone-refractory cells.” The tests showed, surprisingly,
that the agent was also effective against hormone-sensitive cells. (continued, p. 14)

Celebrating the Life of
Sylvia Winstein (p. 14)
(Saul and Sylvia Winstein pictured)

Sheri Sangji, 1985-2009
This space is usually used to highlight the accomplishments of
our faculty, staff, and students and to bring your attention to
upcoming events in the department. Indeed, there are many such
items to mention, which I will touch on later, but rst, I must
discuss an event that overshadows any news about our
accomplishments, that being the death of Sheharbano (Sheri)
Sangji, a staff research associate in our department.
Sheri’s death resulted from a tragic accident that occurred while
she was carrying out her research duties in the Molecular
Sciences Building on December 29, 2008. While Sheri was
drawing an aliquot of t-butyl-lithium solution into a syringe, the
plunger came out, allowing reagent to escape. This highly
reactive compound ignites spontaneously in air, and as a result,
Sheri’s gloves and sweatshirt caught re. Despite heroic efforts by
the two co-workers with her that day, Sheri suffered second and
third degree burns over 40 percent of her body. After an 18-day
battle against infection and other complications resulting from the
burns, Sheri died on January 16, 2009, at the Grossman Burn
Center in Sherman Oaks. A memorial service held at the Islamic
Center of Southern California on January 19 was attended by
approximately 50 of Sheri’s colleagues from the department, as
well as Dean Joseph Rudnick. Sheri was buried later that week in
Toronto, where her parents reside.
Sheri, 23 years old at the time of her death, graduated from
Pomona College in 2008 with a degree in chemistry. As an
undergraduate, she carried out research in the laboratory of Dan
O’Leary, a graduate alumnus of our department who received his
Ph.D. under the mentorship of Frank Anet. Sheri and Dan coauthored papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and
Organic Letters. Some of her undergraduate research focused on
the use of ring closing metathesis reaction in the synthesis of 310helical peptides. After several months working in industry as a
synthetic chemist, Sheri decided that she preferred the intellectual
stimulation of an academic lab and, in October 2008, joined our
organic chemistry division to contribute to exciting research
efforts in the synthesis of natural and designed compounds with
potential to ght such human maladies as cancer and obesity.
Sheri was a brilliant student who planned to enter law school in
the fall.

Words are inadequate to describe the sadness we feel at losing
such an intelligent and generous young woman. Our thoughts
and prayers are with Sheri’s family and friends as they have
been since this terrible accident occurred. In Sheri’s memory,
we commit ourselves to!a thorough!review of safety!protocols
and an immediate inspection of laboratories in the Molecular
Sciences Building, as!well as other labs utilized by the
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.!
The department is deciding on the best way to memorialize
Sheri, and your suggestions are welcome.

Honors and Events

As detailed on p. 3-4, a number of our faculty, including Jim
Bowie, Paula Diaconescu, Xiangfeng Duan, David Eisenberg,
Tom Mason, Joan Valentine, and Omar Yaghi, have received
important extramural awards and honors since the last edition of
the newsletter. In addition, one of our emeriti, Fred Hawthorne,
was awarded the Priestley Medal, the highest honor conferred by
the American Chemical Society.
The department bestowed further honors of our own (also
detailed on p. 5) upon our faculty, staff, and students at the 2008
Department Awards Ceremony, which took place on November 3,
2008. We were delighted to have UCLA alumni Ralph and
Charlene Bauer, who are generous and loyal supporters of the
department, in attendance at this ceremony. Ralph, who received
his B.S. in chemistry from UCLA in 1952 and then went on to
earn his Ph.D. in 1958 in our department working under the
mentorship of Nobel laureate Don Cram, conferred the Ralph &
Charlene Bauer Graduate Student Research Award upon Marisa
Monreal. His presentation included an inspiring speech on the
importance of his UCLA education in allowing him, as the son of
immigrants, to achieve the American dream.
Lastly, we would also like to invite everyone to the 2009
Department Graduation Ceremony, which will be held on
Saturday, June 13, at 5 p.m. in the Court of Sciences.

On January 23, Dean Rudnick and I sent a letter to the campus
community discussing Sheri’s tragic death that included the
following comments:

- 2-

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

2009 Priestley Medal Award

Richard C. Tolman Medal
Joan S. Valentine, professor of
biochemistry, has won this year’s
Richard C. Tolman Medal in
recognition of her outstanding
contributions to chemistry. The Medal
is awarded each year by the Southern
California Section of the American
Chemical Society. The Tolman Medal
was presented to Professor Valentine at
the Southern California Section of the
ACS award dinner in May, held at the
UCLA Faculty Center.

M. Frederick Hawthorne,
B.S.’49 (Pomona), Ph.D.’53
(Cram), Professor Emeritus
from UCLA since 2006,
received the 2009 Priestley
Medal at the American
M. Frederick Hawthorne
Chemical Society March
meeting. The Priestley Medal,
University of Missouri, Columbia recognizing distinguished
Director of the International
Institute of Nano and Molecular
service to the eld of
Medicine
chemistry, is the highest
UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry honor the ACS can bestow.
Professor Emeritus
Fred, who returned to UCLA
in 1969 as professor of
inorganic chemistry, is best known for his work in boron
chemistry, including the synthesis of the icosahedral ion B12H122-.
He is now director of the International Institute of Nano and
Molecular Medicine at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

American Physical Society
Thomas G. Mason has been elected as a fellow of the American
Physical Society, through the Division of Condensed Matter
Physics, “for pioneering the approach of microrheology of
complex uids based on the thermal diffusion of probe colloids.”

Jim Bowie Honored by AAAS
James U. Bowie, professor of biochemistry, has been
elected a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science for his role in devising techniques to
determine protein structure. Jim was one of only three UCLA
Faculty to receive this honor in 2008. The AAAS fellows were
honored at the AAAS annual Meeting in Chicago on February
14, 2009.

Sloan Research Fellowship

Professional
Development Award

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded Paula Diaconescu,
assistant professor of inorganic chemistry, with a 2009 Sloan
Research Fellowship. The fellowships are awarded to
“exceptional young researchers” based on their “outstanding
promise of making fundamental contributions to new
knowledge.” Her research involves the design and synthesis of
complexes with specic geometric and electronic properties.

Laurence Lavelle and Eric
Scerri have been awarded
UCLA Professional
Development Awards.
Laurence Lavelle will use
the award for curriculum
development during the
2008-2009 academic year.
Eric Scerri’s award will be
used to fund his attendance
at a science education
meeting in Cartagena,
Columbia, where he will be
organizing a symposium on
the periodic table and its
applications in science and
science teaching.

Dickson Award and
Royal Society of Chemistry

Charles M. Knobler

Joan S. Valentine

Charles M. Knobler, Professor Emeritus of
physical chemistry, was selected as one of
six UCLA emeriti for the 2009 Dickson
Emeritus Professor Award, given for
outstanding performance in scholarship,
teaching, and service after retirement. He
was also elected as a fellow of the Royal
Society of Chemistry in January 2009.

Professor David Eisenberg received the 2008 Harvey International Prize in Human Health in March at the
Technion in Haifa, Israel. This award was set up by Leo M. Harvey, an immigrant businessman who settled in the
Los Angeles area in 1910 to work as a tool maker with the Hot Point Electric Company.!In 1914, he started his own
shop with two workers, called the Harvey Machine Company, in downtown Los Angeles.!By 1920, the company
had more than 300 employees, and eventually morphed into Harvey Aluminum Company. In different years, the
Harvey Prize is awarded in various elds. Previous awardees include Claude Shannon, Seymour Benzer, Freeman
Dyson, Paul Lauterbur, Sidney Brenner, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Benoit Mandelbrot, Mikhail Gorbachev, Harry
Gray, and Wolfgang Baumeister.

ACS Award and Miller Research Professorship
Omar Yaghi is the recipient of the 2009 ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials. The ACS proudly recognizes his contributions to the
development of the eld of research in polymer and materials science. He has also been awarded a 2009 Visiting Miller Research
Professorship, a program designed to bring scientists to the UC Berkeley campus for collaborative research interactions.

NIH New Innovator Award
Xiangfeng Duan, assistant professor of inorganic chemistry,!was awarded with the 2008 National Institutes of Health (NIH) New
Innovator Award. This program, which is in its second year of existence, supports high-impact research by young investigators.
Xiangfeng’s award is to support his studies into the development of minimally invasive neural nanoprobes to monitor and manipulate
neural activity.

Alumna Honored for Contributions to Biotechnology
Katherine Kantardjieff, Ph.D.’88 (Eisenberg), has been honored with the Andreoli Faculty Service
Award, the highest honor for faculty given by the California State University Program for
Education in Research and Biology. Dr. Kantardjieff is currently a professor of physical chemistry
at Cal State Fullerton.

Charles and Sue Young Graduate and Undergraduate Student Awards
Katherine A. Kantardjieff
Benny Ng, graduate student in Sarah Tolbert’s lab, and Kevin Roy, one of four undergraduate
departmental scholars and a member of Guillaume Chanfreau’s lab, were awarded with the
Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate and Undergraduate Student Award (respectively), at the College Awards Dinner on April 27,
2009. The award is given once a year to three graduate students and four undergraduate students “for exemplary academic achievement,
research, and university citizenship.”

First Annual Audree Fowler Fellowship
The rst awards for the Audree Fowler (B.S.’56, Ph.D.’63 in Biochemistry) Fellowship were
presented in October 2008 at the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute (MBI) Lake
Arrowhead Retreat. Neil King (Todd Yeates Group) and Nathan Joh (Jim Bowie Group)
were awarded with the fellowships.
The Audree V. Fowler Graduate Fellowship in Protein Science serves as a tting testament to Fowler’s
commitment and dedication to her research and to UCLA.

Joe Rangel, a machinist for UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Department, was awarded
by the Agathai Chapter of the Mortar Board at UCLA, with the Tip of the Hat Award.
The Award recognizes Joe’s hard work and dedication to working for UCLA.

Clean energy could save our planet. And when it arrives, Omar Yaghi will
be one of the scientists who make it possible. Yaghi, UCLA professor of
inorganic chemistry, is the creator of Metal Organic Frameworks, or
MOFs, a kind of crystalline sponge that can store amazing quantities of
natural gas, hydrogen or CO2 in very small spaces. He’s also the inventor
of “reticular chemistry,” or the stitching together of molecules into
extended structures. Yaghi explains, “If we were just to take the
automobiles now using natural gas, like the buses in L.A. or sedans in Italy
or taxis in Southeast Asia, if you stuff the tank with MOF, you can drive
twice as long or twice as far.” Yaghi was featured presenting these ideas on
the “Here. Now. UCLA” commercials currently running on TV.

Chemist to Head UCLA Faculty Senate

The Yaghi ad is currently airing on TV stations, and also at
www.spotlight.ucla.edu/here-now-stories/omar-yaghi/.

Robin Garrell, professor of organic chemistry, has been elected Chair of the Faculty Senate for the 2009-2010 academic year. !Professor
Garrell is a spectroscopist and surface scientist who has worked with Professor Joe Loo to make major advances in the development of
microuidic devices for mass spectrometric analysis.!She was recently the Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee of the UCLA
College. !

JACS of All Trades
This past January, Professor Miguel Garcia-Garibay took on a great responsibility: He became an associate editor
for the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), the highest-ranking chemistry journal in the world. The
weekly publication, which was established by the ACS in 1879, receives upwards of 10,000 submissions every year.
Each manuscript is assigned to one of 22 associate editors, who must decide the fate of the paper based on peer
review and their own expertise. Only about a third of all submissions — the ones reporting the most cutting-edge
research with the broadest appeal — get published in the journal.
The job requires a tremendous amount of dedication — Miguel spends several hours a day reading through
manuscripts — but it’s all very rewarding. Every day, he says, he is “exposed to groundbreaking science as it is
happening.” Almost as thrilling? Being selected for the highly regarded position by editor-in-chief Peter Stang. “Associate editors should
be among the leaders in their discipline and be recognized as such by the scientic community,” says Miguel. “I feel honored to be
chosen.”

Table Talk

The chemistry department has long been dependent on UCLA’s Court of
Sciences lecture halls, otherwise known as CS76, CS50 and CS24. After many
decades of heavy use, these halls are now undergoing major renovations. The
department, for its part, has contributed new periodic tables.
Many years before UCLA Facilities put the Court of Sciences on their
renovation list, several of the department faculty members wanted to update the
periodic table in the agship Kenneth N. Trueblood Lecture Hall (CS50). It
wasn’t until 2005, however, that Laurence Lavelle was asked to take on the
“periodic table project,” which required signicant customization since the wall
space available did not match the width-to-height ratio of available periodic
tables. More importantly, the font sizes, thickness, and spacing had to be
The new periodic table on display
customized to maximize viewing in these large lecture halls.
during a lecture by Laurence Lavelle
The previous periodic tables stopped at element 105, making them severely
outdated, and, perhaps most importantly, missing element 106, Seaborgium (Sg), named in honor of the Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg,
who was a chemistry major undergraduate at UCLA. It is now present for a new generation of UCLA undergraduates to see.
After hundreds of hours of work, Laurence showed an early version to approximately 20 faculty members in 2007. Several versions and
a year later, it was ready for nal printing. The department appreciates Laurence’s volunteering to design these informative and colorful
periodic tables, and overseeing their installation. In addition, many thanks to Steve Hardinger for overseeing the lecture hall renovations,
and to Gigi Marr and the many helpful people involved at UCLA Facilities.

- 6-

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

Exciting International Experience for
Graduate Students and Faculty

In March, graduate students and faculty of the UCLA
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry headed down to South
America to participate in the U.S.-Argentina Workshop on
Nanomaterials. The meeting from March 15-17, 2009 was a
stimulating forum for U.S. and Argentinean faculty, industrial, and
student researchers to come together and share top-notch science
in the general area of nanomaterials. The setting was in the
beautiful Patagonia mountain region of Argentina in the
Amancay Hotel in Bariloche.
In an exciting turn of events, the workshop was selected as the
The U.S.-Argentina Workshop Group
rst Bilateral Cooperation on Nanotechnology by the respective
countries. As a result, Mr. James Perez of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires and Dr. Chris Cannizzaro of the U.S. State Department were
both in attendance. On July 10, 2008, a Joint Statement on Increasing Cooperation in Nanotechnology was signed by U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State Tom Shannon and Argentina’s Minister for Science, Technology and
Productive Innovation, Lino Barañao. Both countries have existing scientic programs and
are committed to promote this cooperation on nanotechnology through interactions in the
frame of joint projects.
Concomitant with the workshop, several
UCLA faculty participated in bilateral
roundtable discussions and helped identify
steps to promote and further
nanotechnology cooperation between the
two countries. A school was also held for the
Chris Kolodziej, Eric Schopf, Heather
Maynard and Alison Oostendorp
students, with lectures on
bionanotechnology and discourses on the
cultures of the respective countries.
UCLA Associate Professor Heather Maynard rst proposed the idea for the workshop
as part of her National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award. She and Assistant
Jeff Zink, Meghan Johnson and
Professor Lia Pietrasanta of the Universidad de Buenos Aires co-organized the event.
Miguel Garcia-Garibay
Funding from the U.S. was provided by the NSF through the International Center for
Materials Research (ICMR) and the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). Maynard said, “We had hoped that this workshop would
lead to the proliferation of tangible goals for joint research at the frontier of chemistry and materials science and strengthen cooperation
and networking between the two countries. The workshop met and far exceeded our expectations.”

The New Organic Division!
This is the new Organic Division at the steps of Royce Hall. !
Along with the “veterans,” there is the new Cram Chair,
Patrick Harran, and two newly tenured professors, Heather
Maynard and Ohyun Kwon, and a new assistant professor,
Neil Garg.

Roger Macomber
Dr. Roger S. Macomber has
arranged to provide an
unrestricted bequest of $100,000
to the department. When the
department receives these
generous discretionary funds, the
chair will use the new resources to
address the greatest needs and
highest priorities, such as support
for outstanding students or
innovative research.
Dr. Macomber received his B.S.
in chemistry from UCLA and
then, in 1968, became the
youngest person, at age 23, to
Roger S. Macomber, an avid earn a chemistry Ph.D. here.
cyclist, during a competition (This record has since been
(circa 1995)
broken.) After graduation, he
spent most of his career as a
professor of chemistry at the University of Cincinnati and later
at Pepperdine University, and authored numerous books,
monographs, and scientic articles. He stated recently, “I really
owe a debt of gratitude to the Chemistry & Biochemistry
Department. My education launched me into a wonderful career
of 30 years as a professor, and I always remember my marvelous
days at UCLA.”
We are grateful to Dr. Macomber for his generous support of
the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.

Fujimotos Endow the
Roberts A. Smith
Graduate Student
Award
The Department of
Chemistry & Biochemistry is
pleased to announce that
alumna Atsuko Fujimoto and
Akira & Atsuko Fujimoto
her husband, Akira Fujimoto,
have created the Roberts A.
Smith Graduate Student Award for the Study of Biochemistry
with a generous endowment of $50,000.
Dr. Fujimoto earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in the department in
1963 and then an MD from the Geffen School of Medicine in
1969. She said, “My studies at UCLA would not have been
possible without the nancial support I received from the
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. It is my turn to help
young, aspiring students.” She chose to honor Professor Emeritus
Smith because, she said, “his constant encouragement and

assurance helped me advance toward the degree.”
Professor Smith has been a pioneer in the study of
phosphorus-nitrogen bonds in proteins and the
mechanisms of antiviral agents and
methionine and folic acid metabolism in
normal and malignant cells.
Dr. Fujimoto currently is chief of the
Genetics Division at Los Angeles County/
USC Medical Center. Her husband, a 1960
graduate of UCLA’s Anderson School, is
Roberts Smith
president of Jastam USA Inc., an importer of
electrical and electronic
equipment and parts. In
addition to this gift, the
couple are regular supporters
of the department, the
Chemistry Advisory Council
Fund, the Glenn T. Seaborg
Medal Dinner, and the
Seaborg Endowment.
Atsuko Fujimoto (center) in 1963 We thank the Fujimotos for
their commitment and
at UCLA Graduation
generosity.

Biochemistry Division Raises Funds in Honor
of Distinguished Faculty Emeriti
It is hard to imagine a chemistry department without
biochemists, but a generation ago, biochemistry was not taken
seriously by most chemists. However, at UCLA, a few insightful
pioneers within our department — Dan Atkinson, Paul Boyer,
Richard Dickerson, Roberts Smith, Verne Shumaker and
Charlie West — persevered and assembled what is now
considered one of the top biochemistry divisions in the world.
These revolutionary professors helped create a new eld, and in
the process, two became members of the National Academy of
Sciences, one built a major pharmaceutical company, and one
brought a Nobel Prize to UCLA. All made major discoveries and
all enhanced the lives of their colleagues and students.
To honor their contributions, we are raising discretionary
biochemistry research funds in their honor. Our long-term goal is
to establish chairs in each of their names.
We are proud to honor their important contributions to
science, teaching and the department through these fundraising
efforts and invite you to join us by donating to the “Biochemistry
Discretionary Fund in Honor of Emeriti Faculty” (Biochem
Dsct/Emeriti Fac #618870) using the envelope included in the
newsletter.
Additionally, if you would like information about funding a chair in honor of
a specic professor, please contact Steve Ramirez, director of development for
the Physical Sciences Division, at (310) 794-9045.

These gifts were received from June 1, 2008 to February 15, 2009.
- 9-

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

Seaborg Symposium & Medal Presentation

was held on November 1, 2008, in CNSI Auditorium and the Covel Commons.
Joan S. Valentine, the 2008 Seaborg Medalist, is a biological inorganic chemist and
biochemist. She has been a faculty member of the UCLA Department of Chemistry
& Biochemistry since 1980. She is also currently the editor-in-chief of Accounts of
Chemical Research.
Harold Martinson, Xiangfeng Duan,
Joan Valentine, Yi Lu, and Edith Gralla

Scott Waugh, Bill Gelbart, Al Courey, and Lyda and Paul Boyer

David and Lucy Eisenberg and Harry B. Gray

Joan Valentine displaying
the Glenn T. Seaborg Medal

Joan Valentine and Judith Smith

Photos by William Short

will be presented to Mostafa A. El-Sayed, UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Professor Emeritus, Georgia Tech Julius
Brown Chair and Regents Professor, and Director, Laser Dynamics Laboratory. The symposium and medal dinner will
be held on November 14, 2009. The theme of the symposium will be â&#x20AC;&#x153;Advanced Materials and Nano-Technology.â&#x20AC;? In
addition to Professor El-Sayed, speakers will include Professors A. Paul Alvisatos (Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory at UC Berkeley), Professor Paul Barbara (Director of the Center for Nano & Molecular Science and
Technology at University of Texas, Austin), Professor Zhong Lin Wang (Director of the Center for Nanostructure
Characterization, Georgia Tech), and Professor Ahmed Zewail (Arthur Amos Noyes Lab of Chemical Physics, CalTech).
For information on the Seaborg events, please contact Cynthia Allen at callen@chem.ucla.edu or phone (310) 267-5123.

- 10 -

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

2009 David S. Sigman Memorial Lecture

with those of David Sigman. Prof. Stubbe is a member of the
National Academy of Sciences and was the recent recipient of
the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemistry.
The David S. Sigman Memorial Fund, established in 2002,
honors individuals for their signicant contributions to chemical
biology. David Sigman was a faculty member in Chemistry and
Biochemistry, and in the Department of Biological Chemistry in
the UCLA School of Medicine. His discovery of chemical
nucleases stands as an important contribution to the eld of
enzymology. Born in New York City in 1939, he graduated
magna cum laude from Oberlin College in 1960 with his B.S. in
chemistry. Prof. Sigman received his Ph.D. in 1965 from
Harvard. After postdoctoral work, he served briey as an
instructor at Harvard before joining the UCLA faculty in 1968.
His research bridged the elds of organic chemistry,
biochemistry, and molecular biology. As one of the founding
members of the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute, he served as
its associate director from 1994-2001. David Sigman died in
2001 at the age of 62.
Contributions to help assure the future of the lecture series can be made by
sending your donation in the enclosed donation envelope. (Please write
“Sigman” on the envelope.)

On January 22, 2009,
JoAnne Stubbe,
Novartis Professor of
Chemistry and
Professor of Biology at
the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology,
was honored as the
Seventh Annual David
S. Sigman Memorial
Lecturer at UCLA. She
Marian Sigman, Sebeeha Merchant
presented a talk titled
and JoAnne Stubbe
“Ironing Out
Ribonucleotide
Reductase.” Her talk was followed by a reception and poster
session highlighting the work of UCLA graduate students and
postdoctoral fellows in the eld of chemical biology, in particular
this year the research being conducted by graduate student
trainees from the Chemistry-Biology Interface Training
Program.
JoAnne Stubbe received her undergraduate education in
chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and carried out her
Ph.D. studies in chemistry at the University of California,
Berkeley. She did a brief postdoc in chemistry at UCLA with
Jules Rebek, where she worked on the total synthesis of LSD
starting from tryptophan. Her rst job was in the Chemistry
Department at Williams College, focused on undergraduate
education. She soon realized that she wanted to carry out
research with graduate students, and took a leave of absence
from Williams to work with Robert Abeles at Brandeis University,
where she fell in love with enzymes and became fascinated with
how they work. She moved from Brandeis to Yale University
Medical School in the
Department of
Pharmacology, then to
the University of
Wisconsin in Madison
in Biochemistry. In
1987 she moved to her
current position at
MIT.
Prof. Stubbe’s lab
unraveled the complex
JoAnne Stubbe and Howard Chang
free radical mechanism
(Eisenberg Lab)
of ribonucleotide
reduction catalyzed by ribonucleotide reductases and the
importance of stable and transient protein and nucleotide free
radicals in catalysis. She also worked on the mechanism of free
radical mediated degradation of DNA by the antitumor
antibiotic bleomycins, where her interests extensively overlapped

Chemistry-Biology Interface Training
Program: Sigman Lecture Poster Session
The Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program is an NIHand UCLA-supported program to train graduate students in a
variety of chemical and biological programs using state-of-the-art
chemical techniques to solve problems in biology. Trainees are
supported for three years and participate in a variety of activities
including an internship in another laboratory.! The program was
started by David Sigman in 1994.! He was succeeded as director
by Joan Valentine and then by Ken Houk.! Fifteen trainees
presented posters on their research at this year’s Sigman
Symposium.

Sam Hasson (Koehler Lab) and Ken Houk

- 11 -

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

Sixth Annual Winstein Lecture
The Organic Division hosted the Sixth Annual Winstein Lecture
on March 12, 2009. The Saul Winstein Lecture has become an
annual UCLA event, sponsored by the Winstein family and
UCLA through the
Winstein Chair.
Saul Winstein was
the greatest physical
organic chemist of
his generation. The
lecture pays tribute
to his achievements
by honoring
outstanding physical
organic chemists,
Herb Kaesz, Maurice Brookhart
many who have
and Miguel Garcia-Garibay
strong ties to UCLA.
This year, Maurice Brookhart from the University of North
Carolina - Chapel Hill was the Winstein Lecturer. Brookhart’s
lecture was titled, “Catalytic Transformations Based on CarbonHydrogen Bond Activation Reactions of Late Transition Metal
Complexes.”
Saul Winstein was an undergraduate at UCLA, receiving his
degree in 1934. After his Ph.D. at Caltech, NRC postdoc at
Harvard and one year as instructor at IIT, he returned to UCLA
as an instructor in 1941. During his 28-year career at UCLA, he
created many of the concepts that guide our understanding of
reactions in solution. Members of the Winstein family continue
to be major supporters of activities in our department, and we
were thankful that Sylvia Winstein was able to attended the
reception held before the lecture in the Winstein Commons.
Professor Brookhart attended Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore where he received an A.B. degree in chemistry in
1964. He carried out his doctoral work in physical organic
chemistry at UCLA under the direction of Saul Winstein. After
nishing his Ph.D. degree in 1968, he spent six months as a
National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at UCLA with
Winstein and Frank Anet, followed by a year of study at
Southampton University as a NATO postdoctoral fellow.
Brookhart joined the University of North Carolina faculty in
1969 and is currently the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of
Chemistry. Brookhart served as associate editor of Organometallics
(1990-96), received the 1992 American Chemical Society (ACS)
Award in Organometallic Chemistry, the 1994 ACS Cope
Scholar Award, and the 2003 ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry.
He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Ken Houk, Maurice Brookhart, J.D. Roberts and Mike Jung

in 1996, the National Academy of Sciences in 2001, and received
the North Carolina Award in Science in 2008.
The lecture was preceded by a reception in the Winstein
Commons, and after the lecture in the CNSI auditorium, there
was a reception for Professor Brookhart and all those attending
the lecture.
Contributions to help assure the future of the lecture series can be made by
sending your donation in the enclosed donation envelope. (Please write
“Winstein” on the envelope.)

Andrea J. Liu Presents
Kivelson Lecture
The seventh Kivelson Lecture was given
on March 2, 2009, by Andrea J. Liu,
Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn
Professor in the Natural Sciences in the
department of physics and astronomy at
the University of Pennsylvania. Liu,
Andrea J. Liu
whose eld is theoretical condensed
matter physics, spoke on “Jamming and the Glass Transition”,
work that she started during her 10 years in the physical
chemistry faculty at UCLA. Liu received her Ph.D. from Cornell
in 1989, and, after
several years as a
postdoc rst at Exxon
and then at UC Santa
Barbara, joined our
department in 1994,
leaving for Penn — to
our great regret — in
2004.
(continued, top of p. 13)
Andrea Liu and Juli Feigon

- 12 -

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

Initial funding for the Kivelson Lectures was
established in 2002, to honor Daniel who,
though several years past his retirement, was
still as active as ever pursuing his creative and
exciting researches in the area of liquid state
dynamics and the theory of the glass transition.
The idea was to bring friends and
collaborators of Daniel’s to the department on
an annual basis who he would be particularly
eager to see and from whose expertise his
colleagues in the department could regularly
benet. Unfortunately, Daniel became seriously
Sabeeha Merchant and Margaret
ill just months before the rst lecture (January
Kivelson at the Kivelson Reception
6, 2003), and was unable to attend; he passed
away weeks later, on January 23, 2003.
Next year’s (2010) Kivelson Lecturer will be Tom Keyes, professor of theoretical and
computational biochemistry at Boston University, Ph.D’71 (Kivelson). We are already
looking forward to his visit!
Contributions to help assure the future of the lecture series can be made by sending your donation in the
enclosed donation envelope. (Please write “Kivelson” on the envelope)

Unraveling the Mysteries of Chemical Reactivity
Ken Houk, distinguished
professor of chemistry at
UCLA, is already known for
developing theoretical models
to understand what controls
reactivity and selectivity. His
frontier molecular orbital
theory of cycloaddition
regioselectivity has been in
general use for more than 30
years. Now his research
group has developed a more
Lai Xu, Amy Hayden, Ken Houk, Franziska Shoenebeck
complete model, the
and Elizabeth Krenske
distortion/interaction model,
to account for differences in reactivity of different types of 1,3-dipoles, a useful class of
reactants. First developed with former graduate student Daniel Ess, the distortion/
interaction model has been extended to a number of other cycloaddition reactions by
current co-workers Lai Xu, Amy Hayden, Franziska Schoenebeck, and Elizabeth Krenske
(pictured), who have applied this to explain reactivity of many 1,3-dipolar systems. Dr.
Schoenebeck and former Houk group members Yeimy Garcia and Claude Legault have
also shown how this model explains regioselectivity of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling
reactions. The work has been published in a series of papers in the Journal of the
American Chemical Society.

- 13 -

Breathing Life Into An Old Idea
A new paper in JACS by Stephen Kent at
the University of Chicago, highlighted in
an accompanying C&E News article, is
breathing new life into an old idea.
About 13 years ago a graduate student in
the Yeates laboratory, Stephanie Wukovitz,
provided a mathematical answer to a longstanding puzzle concerning why proteins
tend to crystallize in just a few strongly
favored kinds of symmetric arrangements.
The mathematical analysis further
predicted that proteins would be much
easier to crystallize if they could be
prepared synthetically in both
enantiomeric hands. The difculty has
been in synthesizing racemic mixtures of
proteins of reasonably interesting size.
In the last decade, Kent has been
pushing that eld forward by developing
novel synthetic methods. His recent work
shows that, in multiple cases, small
proteins that had resisted crystallization by
other approaches can be crystallized from
synthetic racemic mixtures, as had been
predicted. Those successes suggest that
racemic crystallization might eventually
become a routine strategy for overcoming
the difcult challenges of protein
crystallization.

A crystal containing biological (cyan)
and non-biological (yellow)
enantiomers of a protein molecule

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

Cancer Drug (continued from p. 1)
The chemists licensed their patents to San Francisco-based Medivation. “They didn’t take RD162,” he said. “They took another
compound, an analog of RD162. They called it MDV3100, and that is the compound they decided to move forward” into
pharmacokinetics, toxicology and animals tests.
Medivation’s animal trials showed that MDV3100 reduced tumors to a third or fourth of their original sizes. Jung himself doesn’t
understand why the drug acts as effectively as it does. “The mechanism we have says it should be cytotoxic, but instead appears to be
apoptotic,” he said. “All it’s supposed to be doing is stop binding to the androgen receptor. But there’s something else going on, and
we’re studying the system like crazy to nd out.”
Human trials of MDV3100 began in July 2007. “In October 2007, there was a Prostate Cancer Foundation meeting, and eight or 10
people I never met asked me for samples of MDV3100,” Jung said. “Word was sneaking out that it was looking good.”
In an ongoing 90-patient Phase I and II clinical trial of MDV3100, early results suggest encouraging antitumor activity. If results
continue to be positive, Medivation says it will seek Food & Drug Administration approval for a Phase III trial. (It’s worth noting that
another androgen receptor blocker called BMS-641988, developed by oncology chemist Mark E. Salvati’s group, is also in clinical trials
for hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer.)
While Taxotere and Novantrone are already approved medications for treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer, they are not
androgen-receptor antagonists. “They have marginal benet, signicant toxicity, and work by killing cells nonspecically,” says Sawyers.
“MDV3100 is novel because it has minimal side effects,” and it is targeted at the condition that specically drives hormone-refractory
metastatic prostate cancer: increased levels of androgen receptor.
Notably, funding for Jung’s research on prostate cancer drug candidates didn't come from the National Institutes of Health, but from
the Prostate Cancer Foundation founded by Michael Milken. “Milken was treated for prostate cancer and has since remained cancerfree,” said Jung. “He decided to raise money for prostate cancer research. Without him, we wouldn't have had the money for this project,
so Michael Milken is to be thanked for this.”

Sylvia Winstein
On Friday, March 27, the Department lost a great friend and
benefactor, Sylvia Levin Winstein, aged 93. Sylvia came to
UCLA as an undergraduate in psychology nearly 80 years ago
and, except for a brief respite, never left. It was at UCLA that
she met Saul Winstein, an undergraduate chemistry major, who
after receiving his master’s degree in 1935, went on to Caltech
for his doctoral studies. He and Sylvia were married in 1937,
and they returned to UCLA in 1941, when Saul accepted a
Sylvia Winstein presenting the
position as instructor. With Saul’s untimely death in 1969,
Winstein Scholarship (circa 1970)
Sylvia Winstein
Sylvia’s ties to the department and the university became even
(circa 1950)
stronger. She was instrumental in establishing the Winstein Chair
in Organic Chemistry and the Winstein Awards given annually to graduate students, until recently presenting
the awards at the departmental graduation ceremonies. She served for many years on the Chemistry Advisory Council.
Her commitments to UCLA extended beyond our department and include her work with Aesculapians, the School of Medicine
support group, Design for Sharing, which brings elementary and high-school students to campus for
concerts, and the Grunwald Center for Graphic Arts. In 1980 she took over the management of the
annual Emeriti Arts and Crafts exhibit, which ourished and is now named in her honor. Despite
suffering a debilitating stroke several years ago, she continued to participate in departmental
activities; just two weeks before her death she had been present for the annual Winstein Lecture.
In 2002 Sylvia donated her Westwood house to the university as a gift annuity. This permitted her
to continue to live in the house and to receive some retirement income. Now, when UCLA receives
the house, the proceeds from its sale will add substantially to the funds supporting the Saul Winstein
Chair and the Winstein fellowships. The gift will also be used to establish a Sylvia Winstein Fund
Carolee and Sylvia Winstein at
to benet the UCLA Emeriti Association’s art programs.
the 2006 Graduation Ceremony

- 14 -

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

Robert Bau

Mark S. Delaney

B.S.’64 (U. of Hong Kong),
Ph.D.’68 (Kaesz), professor of
chemistry at the University of
Southern California, died
December 28, 2008, aged 67.
After a year as a postdoc at Harvard, he
joined the USC faculty in 1969. Bau was a
distinguished researcher in the eld of x-ray
and neutron diffraction crystallography and
was president of the American
Crystallographic Association in 2006.

B.S.’75 (Cal State Fullerton),
Ph.D.’80 (Hawthorne), associate
professor of chemistry, McNeese
State University, Louisiana, died
April 4, 2008, aged 55. Delaney
worked seven years at Dow Chemical
(1980-87) before joining the faculty at
McNeese in 1987. Although he considered
himself an organometallic chemist, most of
the projects he investigated had some
connection to polymer chemistry. His most
recent research interests included anionic
and cationic polymerizations,
halatopolymers, gas permeability through
polymer membranes, and thermal
characterization of polymers.

Hans Frederick Bauer
B.S.’56, Ph.D.’62 (Drinkard), died
February 6, 2009, aged 76. Before
returning to UCLA for graduate
work, he served for the Navy, in
the Pacic. After receiving his
Ph.D., Bauer had an extensive research
career including working with Occidental
Petroleum and with the Department of
Energy.

Loraine Geissman

development and applications of
polypyridyl complexes of ruthenium,
osmium, and rhenium. Most recently, in
collaboration with workers at the Pacic
Northwest Regional Laboratory, Sullivan
reported new highly oxidizing excited states
of rhenium and technetium.

Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji
B.S.’08 (Pamona), a research
assistant in the Patrick Harran
laboratory, died January 10, 2009,
aged 23, as a result of injuries
sustained in a laboratory re. She
had been at UCLA only three months and
intended to start law school in the fall. (See
also the Chair’s message on p.2)

Sami Talhouk

Lecturer in chemistry from 1979
to 1988, died September 2, 2008,
aged 81. Dr. Talhouk, a Druse in
Lebanon, obtained his
undergraduate degree from the
American University of Beirut. Coming to
Stanley J. Cristol
Jay C. Kochi
the United States in 1952, he obtained his
B.S.’37 (Northwestern), Ph.D.’43
B.S.’49, Ph.D.’52 (Iowa State),
M.S. from Southern Methodist University
(Young), Joseph Sewell Professor of
died August 9, 2008, aged 81.
and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from
Chemistry at the University of
Kochi was Welch Professor of
Ohio State University. Talhouk returned to
Colorado, died January 23, 2008,
Chemistry at the University of
Lebanon to lecture at the Lebanese
aged 91. One of the rst doctoral
Houston and had a distinguished
University’s Faculty of Science, but, when
students in chemistry at UCLA, he did
career in organic chemistry. He received the the Lebanese civil war forced closure of
research with Bill Young on the
James Flack Norris Award in physical
that university, he returned to the United
stereochemistry of iodide-ion-promoted
organic chemistry from the American
States, teaching rst at Penn State, and then
elimination of dibromides. After
Chemical Society 1981 and was elected to
at UCLA. His last teaching position was in
postdoctoral work with Roger Adams at the
the National Academy of Sciences in 1982. the Department of Chemistry at California
University of Illinois, he joined the faculty
Before joining the Department of
State University Northridge.
at Colorado in 1946, retiring in 1986.
Chemistry at UH in 1984, Kochi worked as
Cristol contributed to many areas of
Irving D. Webb
an instructor at Harvard, a chemist at the
physical organic chemistry, including
Shell Development Company, a faculty
M.A.’42, Ph.D.’44 (Young), died
solvolysis reactions, free-radical chemistry,
member at Case University, and Earl
March 26, 2008, aged 87. After
small-ring chemistry, and polycyclic
Blough Professor of Chemistry at Indiana
serving in the Navy during World
chemistry. He was elected to the National
War II, he worked as a research
University.
Academy of Sciences in 1972 and in the
chemist with DuPont. In the early
same year received the James Flack Norris
B(rian) Patrick Sullivan
1950’s he accepted a position with Unocal,
Award in physical organic chemistry. In
B.S.’71 (UC Irvine), M.S.’86
spending the rest of his career there, rst in
1994, the University of Colorado renamed
(UCLA), Ph.D.’89 (North
Yorba Linda, California, and later in Los
its chemistry and biochemistry building
Carolina, Chapel Hill), professor
Angeles. He retired in 1980.
after Cristol.
of chemistry, University of
Wyoming, died August 10, 2008,
aged 58. His eld was inorganic
photochemistry, specializing in the
Widow of Professor Theodore
Geissman, died February 28,
2008, aged 93.

- 15 -

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry - Spring 2009

Join Us at the 2009
Commencement Ceremony
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 5 p.m.
the Court of Sciences

2009 Graduation
The UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Department would like to invite everyone to join us in celebrating the achievements of our
new graduates. It’s a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with our faculty and your fellow Bruins! We hope to see you there!

UCLA-DEPARTMENT OF
CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY

607 Charles E. Young Drive East
Los Angeles, California 90095-1569

Now More Than Ever
Help Keep Us Great!
During these challenging economic
times, your generous gifts mean
more to us than ever and helps
ensure that the department
remains at the forefront of
scientic advancement.